9/23/13 Nicolaus Copernicus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus 1/17

Nicolaus Copernicus (German: Nikolaus Kopernikus; Polish: Mikołaj Kopernik (help·info); 19 February 1473 – 24 May

1543) was a Renaissancemathematician and astronomer who formulated a heliocentric model of the universe which placed

the Sun, rather than the Earth, at the center.[a]

The publication of Copernicus' book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), just

before his death in 1543, is considered a major event in the history of science. It began theCopernican Revolution and

contributed importantly to the scientific revolution.

Copernicus was born and died in Royal Prussia, a region of the Kingdom of Poland since 1466. Copernicus had a doctorate

in canon law and, though without degrees, was a physician,polyglot, classics scholar, translator, governor,diplomat,

and economist who in 1517 set down a quantity theory of money, a principal concept in economics to the present day, and

formulated a version of Gresham's law in the year 1519, before Gresham.[1]

Contents [hide]

1 Life

1.1 Father's family

1.2 Mother's family

1.3 Languages

1.4 Name

1.5 Education

1.5.1 In Poland

1.5.2 In Italy

1.6 Work

1.7 Heliocentrism

1.8 The book

1.9 Death

2 Copernican system

2.1 Predecessors

2.2 Copernicus

2.3 Successors

3 Controversy

4 Nationality

5 Commemoration

5.1 Copernicium

5.2 Veneration

6 See also

7 Notes

8 References

9 Further reading

10 External links

Life

Nicolaus Copernicus was born on 19 February 1473 in the city of Toruń (Thorn), in the province of Royal Prussia, in the Crown

of the Kingdom of Poland.[2][3] His father was a merchant from Kraków and his mother was the daughter of a wealthy Toruń

merchant.[4] Nicolaus was the youngest of four children. His brother Andreas (Andrew) became

anAugustinian canon at Frombork (Frauenburg).[4] His sister Barbara, named after her mother, became

a Benedictinenun and, in her final years, prioress of a convent inChełmno (Kulm); she died after 1517.[4] His sister Katharina

married the businessman and Toruń city councilor Barthel Gertner and left five children, whom Copernicus looked after to the

end of his life.[4] Copernicus never married or had children.[citation needed]

Father's family

9/23/13 Nicolaus Copernicus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus 2/17

Toruń birthplace (ul. Kopernika

15, left). Together w ith the house

at no. 17 (right), it forms

theMuzeum Mikołaja Kopernika.

Copernicus' maternal

uncle,Lucas Watzenrode the

Younger

The father’s family can be traced to a village in Silesia nearNysa (Neiße). The village's

name has been variously spelled Kopernik,[5] Copernik, Copernic, Kopernic, Coprirnik, and

today Koperniki.[6] In the 14th century, members of the family began moving to various

other Silesian cities, to the Polish capital, Kraków (1367), and to Toruń (1400).[6] The

father, Mikołaj the Elder, likely the son of Jan, came from the Kraków line.[6]

Nicolaus was named after his father, who appears in records for the first time as a well-to-

do merchant who dealt in copper, selling it mostly in Danzig (Gdańsk).[7][8] He moved from

Kraków to Toruń around 1458.[9] Toruń, situated on the Vistula River, was at that time

embroiled in the Thirteen Years' War (1454–66), in which the Kingdom of Poland and

thePrussian Confederation, an alliance of Prussian cities, gentry and clergy, fought

the Teutonic Order over control of the region. In this war, Hanseatic cities like Danzig and

Toruń, Nicolaus Copernicus' hometown, chose to support the Polish King, Casimir IV

Jagiellon, who promised to respect the cities' traditional vast independence, which the

Teutonic Order had challenged. Nicolaus' father was actively engaged in the politics of the

day and supported Poland and the cities against the Teutonic Order.[10] In 1454 he

mediated negotiations between Poland’sCardinal Zbigniew Oleśnicki and the Prussian

cities for repayment of war loans.[6] In theSecond Peace of Thorn (1466), the Teutonic

Order formally relinquished all claims to its western provinces, which as Royal Prussia remained a region of Poland for the

next 300 years.

Copernicus' father married Barbara Watzenrode, the astronomer's mother, between 1461 and 1464.[6] He died about 1483.[4]

Mother's family

Nicolaus’ mother, Barbara Watzenrode, was the daughter of a wealthy Toruń patrician and

city councillor, Lucas Watzenrode the Elder (deceased 1462), and Katarzyna (widow of

Jan Peckau), mentioned in other sources as Katarzyna "Rüdiger gente Modlibog"

(deceased 1476).[4]The Watzenrode family, like the Kopernik family, had come from Silesia

from near Świdnica (Schweidnitz), and after 1360 had settled in Toruń. They soon became

one of the wealthiest and most influential patrician families.[4]Through the Watzenrodes'

extensive family relationships by marriage, Copernicus was related to wealthy families of

Toruń, Danzig and Elbląg (Elbing), and to prominent noble families of Prussia:

the Czapskis, Działyńskis,Konopackis and Kościeleckis.[4] The Modlibógs (the Polish

name means "Pray God") were a prominent Polish family who had been well known in

Poland's history since 1271.[11] Lucas and Katherine had three children: Lucas

Watzenrode the Younger (1447-1512), who would become Bishop of Warmia and

Copernicus' patron; Barbara, the astronomer's mother (deceased after 1495); and Christina

(deceased before 1502), who in 1459 married the Toruń merchant and mayor, Tiedeman

von Allen.[4]

Lucas Watzenrode the Elder, a wealthy merchant and owner of the village of Sławkowo, and in 1439-62 president of the

judicial bench, was a decided opponent of the Teutonic Knights.[4]In 1453 he was the delegate from Toruń at

the Grudziądz (Graudenz) conference that planned the uprising against the Teutonic Knights.[4] During the ensuing Thirteen

Years' War (1454–66), he actively supported the Prussian cities' war effort with substantial monetary subsidies (only part of

which he later re-claimed), with political activity in Toruń and Danzig, and by personally fighting in battles at Łasin (Lessen)

and Malbork (Marienburg).[4] He died in 1462.[4]

Lucas Watzenrode the Younger, the astronomer's maternal uncle and patron, was educated at the University of Kraków

(now Jagiellonian University) and at the universities of Cologneand Bologna. He was a bitter opponent of the Teutonic

Order,[12][13] and its Grand Master once referred to him as "the devil incarnate".[14] In 1489 Watzenrode was elected Bishop

of Warmia (Ermeland, Ermland) against the preference of King Casimir IV, who had hoped to install his own son in that seat.

As a result, Watzenrode quarreled with the king until Casimir IV’s death three years later.[15] Watzenrode was then able to

form close relations with three successive Polish monarchs: John I Albert, Alexander Jagiellon, and Sigismund I the Old. He

9/23/13 Nicolaus Copernicus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus 3/17

German-language letter from

Copernicus to Duke Albert of

Prussia, giving medical advice

forGeorge von Kunheim (1541)

was a friend and key advisor to each ruler, and his influence greatly strengthened the ties between Warmia and Poland

proper.[14][16] Watzenrode came to be considered the most powerful man in Warmia, and his wealth, connections and

influence allowed him to secure Copernicus’ education and career as a canon at Frombork Cathedral.[17][18]

Languages

Copernicus is postulated to have spoken Latin, German, and Polish with equal fluency. He

also spoke Greek and Italian.[19][20][21][b] The vast majority of Copernicus’ surviving works

are in Latin, which in his lifetime was the language of academia in

Europe.[citation needed] Latin was also the official language of the Roman Catholic Church

and of Poland's royal court, and thus all of Copernicus’ correspondence with the Church

and with Polish leaders was in Latin.[citation needed]

There survive a few documents written by Copernicus in German. The German philosophy

professor Martin Carriermentions this as a reason to consider Copernicus’ native language

to have been German.[25] Other arguments for German being Copernicus' native tongue are

that he was born in a predominantly German-speaking city and that, while studying canon

law at Bologna in 1496, he signed into the German natio (Natio Germanorum)—a student

organization which, according to its 1497 by-laws, was open to students of all kingdoms

and states whose mother-tongue ("Muttersprache") was German.[26] However, according to

French philosopherAlexandre Koyré, Copernicus' registration with the Natio

Germanorum does not in itself imply that Copernicus considered himself German, since

students from Prussia and Silesia were routinely so categorized, which carried certain

privileges that made it a natural choice for German-speaking students, regardless of their

ethnicity or self-identification.[26][27][28][29][30]

Name

In Copernicus' time, people were often called after the places where they lived. Like theSilesian village that inspired it,

Copernicus' surname has been spelled variously. The surname likely had something to do with the local Silesian copper-

mining industry,[24] though some scholars assert that it may have been inspired by the dill plant (in Polish, "koperek " or

"kopernik ") that grows wild in Silesia.[31]

As was to be the case with William Shakespeare a century later,[32] numerous spelling variants of the name are documented

for the astronomer and his relatives. The name first appeared as a place name in Silesia in the 13th century, where it was

spelled variously in Latin documents. Copernicus "was rather indifferent about orthography".[33] During his childhood, about

1480, the name of his father (and thus of the future astronomer) was recorded in Thorn as Niclas Koppernigk .[34] At Kraków

he signed himself, in Latin, Nicolaus Nicolai de Torunia (Nicolaus, son of Nicolaus, of Toruń).[35] At Bologna, in 1496, he

registered in the Matricula Nobilissimi Germanorum Collegii, resp. Annales Clarissimae Nacionis Germanorum, of the Natio

Germanica Bononiae, as Dominus Nicolaus Kopperlingk de Thorn – IX grosseti.[36][37] At Padua he signed himself "Nicolaus

Copernik", later "Coppernicus".[33] The astronomer thus Latinized his name to Coppernicus, generally with two "p"s (in 23 of

31 documents studied),[38] but later in life he used a single "p". On the title page of De revolutionibus, Rheticus published the

name as (in the genitive, or possessive, case) "Nicolai Copernici".[citation needed]

Education

In Poland

Upon the father’s death, young Nicolaus’ maternal uncle,Lucas Watzenrode the Younger(1447–1512), took the boy under his

wing and saw to his education and career.[4] Watzenrode maintained contacts with leading intellectual figures in Poland and

was a friend of the influential Italian-born humanist and Kraków courtier,Filippo Buonaccorsi.[39] There are no surviving primary

documents on the early years of Copernicus' childhood and education.[4] Copernicus biographers assume that Watzenrode

first sent young Copernicus to St. John's School, at Toruń, where he himself had been a master.[4] Later, according to

Armitage,[c] the boy attended the Cathedral School at Włocławek, up the Vistula River from Toruń, which prepared pupils for

entrance to the University of Kraków, Watzenrode's alma mater in Poland's capital.[40]

9/23/13 Nicolaus Copernicus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus 4/17

Collegium Maius, Kraków

Nicolaus Copernicus

Monument in Kraków

In the winter semester of 1491–92 Copernicus,

as "Nicolaus Nicolai de Thuronia", matriculated

together with his brother Andrew at the

University of Kraków (now Jagiellonian

University).[4] Copernicus began his studies in

the Department of Arts (from the fall of 1491,

presumably until the summer or fall of 1495) in

the heyday of the Kraków astronomical-

mathematical school, acquiring the foundations

for his subsequent mathematical

achievements.[4] According to a later but

credible tradition (Jan Brożek), Copernicus was

a pupil of Albert Brudzewski, who by then (from 1491) was a professor of Aristotelian

philosophy but taught astronomy privately outside the university; Copernicus became

familiar with Brudzewski's widely read commentary to Georg von Peuerbach's Theoricæ

novæ planetarum and almost certainly attended the lectures of Bernard of

Biskupie and Wojciech Krypa of Szamotuły, and probably other astronomical lectures by Jan of Głogów, Michał of

Wrocław (Breslau), Wojciech of Pniewy, and Marcin Bylica of Olkusz.[41]

Copernicus' Kraków studies gave him a thorough grounding in the mathematical-astronomical knowledge taught at the

university (arithmetic, geometry, geometric optics, cosmography, theoretical and computational astronomy), a good

knowledge of the philosophical and natural-science writings of Aristotle (De coelo, Metaphysics), stimulated his interest in

learning, and made him conversant with humanistic culture.[17] Copernicus broadened the knowledge that he took from the

university lecture halls with independent reading of books that he acquired during his Kraków years (Euclid, Haly Abenragel,

the Alfonsine Tables,Johannes Regiomontanus' Tabulae directionum); to this period, probably, also date his earliest scientific

notes, now preserved partly at Uppsala University.[17] At Kraków Copernicus began collecting a large library on astronomy; it

would later be carried off as war booty by the Swedes during the Deluge in 1650s and is now at the Uppsala University

Library.[citation needed]

Copernicus' four years at Kraków played an important role in the development of his critical faculties and initiated his analysis

of the logical contradictions in the two most popular systems of astronomy—Aristotle's theory of homocentric spheres,

and Ptolemy's mechanism of eccentrics and epicycles—the surmounting and discarding of which constituted the first step

toward the creation of Copernicus' own doctrine of the structure of the universe.[17]

Without taking a degree, probably in the fall of 1495, Copernicus left Kraków for the court of his uncle Watzenrode, who in

1489 had been elevated to Prince-Bishop of Warmia and soon (before November 1495) sought to place his nephew in the

Warmia canonry vacated by the 26 August 1495 death of its previous tenant, Jan Czanow. For unclear reasons—probably

due to opposition from part of the chapter, who appealed to Rome—Copernicus' installation was delayed, inclining

Watzenrode to send both his nephews to study canon law in Italy, seemingly with a view to furthering their ecclesiastic

careers and thereby also strengthening his own influence in the Warmia chapter.[17]

Leaving Warmia in mid-1496—possibly with the retinue of the chapter's chancellor, Jerzy Pranghe, who was going to Italy—in

the fall (October?) of that year Copernicus arrived inBologna and a few months later (after 6 January 1497) signed himself into

the register of the Bologna University of Jurists' "German nation", which also included young Poles

from Silesia,Prussia and Pomerania, as well as students of other nationalities.[17]

In Italy

It was only on 20 October 1497 that Copernicus, by proxy, formally succeeded to the Warmia canonry which had been

granted to him two years earlier. To this, by a document dated 10 January 1503 at Padua, he would add a sinecure at the

Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross in Wrocław, Silesia, Bohemia. Despite having been granted a papal indult on 29

November 1508 to receive further benefices, through his ecclesiastic career Copernicus not only did not acquire

further prebends and higher stations (prelacies) at the chapter, but in 1538 he relinquished the Wrocław sinecure. It is

uncertain whether he was ordained a priest; he may only have taken minor orders, which sufficed for assuming a chapter

canonry.[17]

9/23/13 Nicolaus Copernicus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus 5/17

Via Galliera 65, Bologna, site

of house of Domenico Maria

Novara. Plaque on porticocommemorates

Copernicus.

"Here, w here stood the house of Domenico Maria

Novara, professor of the ancient Studium of Bologna,

NICOLAUS COPERNICUS, the Polish mathematician and

astronomer w ho w ould revolutionize concepts of the

universe, conducted brilliant celestial observations w ith his

teacher in 1497–1500. Placed on the 5th centenary of

[Copernicus'] birth by the City, the University, the Academy of

Sciences of the Institute of Bologna, the Polish Academy of

Sciences. 1473 [—] 1973."

During his three-year stay at

Bologna, between fall 1496 and

spring 1501, Copernicus seems

to have devoted himself less

keenly to studying canon law(he

received his doctorate in law only

after seven years, following a

second return to Italy in 1503)

than to studying the humanities—

probably attending lectures by

Filippo Beroaldo,Antonio Urceo,

called Codro, Giovanni Garzoni,

and Alessandro Achillini—and to

studying astronomy. He met the

famous astronomer Domenico

Maria Novara da Ferrara and

became his disciple and

assistant. Copernicus was

developing new ideas inspired by reading the "Epitome of the

Almagest" (Epitome in Almagestum Ptolemei) by George von Peuerbach andJohannes Regiomontanus (Venice, 1496). He

verified its observations about certain peculiarities in Ptolemy's theory of the Moon's motion, by conducting on 9 March 1497

at Bologna a memorable observation of Aldebaran, the brightest star in the Taurus constellation, whose results reinforced his

doubts as to the geocentric system. Copernicus the humanist sought confirmation for his growing doubts through close

reading of Greek and Latin authors (Pythagoras, Aristarchos of Samos, Cleomedes, Cicero, Pliny the

Elder, Plutarch, Philolaus,Heraclides, Ecphantos, Plato), gathering, especially while at Padua, fragmentary historic

information about ancient astronomical, cosmological and calendar systems.[42]

Copernicus spent the jubilee year 1500 in Rome, where he arrived with his brother Andrew that spring, doubtless to perform

an apprenticeship at the Papal Curia. Here, too, however, he continued his astronomical work begun at Bologna, observing,

for example, a lunar eclipse on the night of 5–6 November 1500. According to a later account by Rheticus, Copernicus also—

probably privately, rather than at the Roman Sapienza—as a "Professor Mathematum" (professor of astronomy) delivered, "to

numerous... students and... leading masters of the science", public lectures devoted probably to a critique of the

mathematical solutions of contemporary astronomy.[43]

On his return journey doubtless stopping briefly at Bologna, in mid-1501 Copernicus arrived back in Warmia. After on 28 July

receiving from the chapter a two-year extension of leave in order to study medicine (since "he may in future be a useful

medical advisor to our Reverend Superior [Bishop Lucas Watzenrode] and the gentlemen of the chapter"), in late summer or

in the fall he returned again to Italy, probably accompanied by his brother Andrew and by Canon B. Sculteti. This time he

studied at the University of Padua, famous as a seat of medical learning, and—except for a brief visit to Ferrara in May–June

1503 to pass examinations for, and receive, his doctorate in canon law—he remained at Padua from fall 1501 to summer

1503.[43]

Copernicus studied medicine probably under the direction of leading Padua professors—Bartolomeo da

Montagnana, Girolamo Fracastoro, Gabriele Zerbi, Alessandro Benedetti—and read medical treatises that he acquired at this

time, by Valescus de Taranta, Jan Mesue, Hugo Senensis, Jan Ketham, Arnold de Villa Nova, and Michele Savonarola, which

would form the embryo of his later medical library.[43]

One of the subjects that Copernicus must have studied was astrology, since it was considered an important part of a medical

education.[44] However, unlike most other prominent Renaissance astronomers, he appears never to have practiced or

expressed any interest in astrology.[45]

As at Bologna, Copernicus did not limit himself to his official studies. It was probably the Padua years that saw the beginning

of his Hellenistic interests. He familiarized himself with Greek language and culture with the aid of Theodorus Gaza's grammar

(1495) and J.B. Chrestonius' dictionary (1499), expanding his studies of antiquity, begun at Bologna, to the writings

9/23/13 Nicolaus Copernicus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus 6/17

Astronomer Copernicus, or

Conversations with God, by Matejko. In

background: Frombork Cathedral.

Copernicus' translation

ofTheophylact

Simocatta's Epistles. Cover

show s coats-of-

arms of(clockwise from

top) Poland, Lithuania

and Kraków .

of Basilius Bessarion, Lorenzo Valla and others. There also seems to be evidence that it was during his Padua stay that the

idea finally crystallized, of basing a new system of the world on the movement of the Earth.[43]

As the time approached for Copernicus to return home, in spring 1503 he journeyed to Ferrara where, on 31 May 1503, having

passed the obligatory examinations, he was granted the degree of doctor of canon law. No doubt it was soon after (at latest,

in fall 1503) that he left Italy for good to return to Warmia.[43]

Work

Having completed all his studies in Italy, 30-year-old Copernicus returned to

Warmia, where he would live out the remaining 40 years of his life, apart from brief

journeys to Kraków and to nearby Prussian

cities: Toruń (Thorn), Gdańsk (Danzig),Elbląg (Elbing), Grudziądz (Graudenz), Malbork(Marienburg), Königsberg (Królewiec).[43]

The Prince-Bishopric of Warmia enjoyed substantial autonomy, with its own diet(parliament) and monetary unit (the same as

in the other parts of Royal Prussia) and treasury.[46]

Copernicus was his uncle's secretary and physician from 1503 to 1510 (or perhaps till his uncle's death on 29 March 1512)

and resided in the Bishop's castle at Lidzbark (Heilsberg), where he began work on his heliocentric theory. In his official

capacity, he took part in nearly all his uncle's political, ecclesiastic and administrative-economic duties. From the beginning

of 1504, Copernicus accompanied Watzenrode to sessions of the Royal Prussian diet held at Malbork and Elbląg and, write

Dobrzycki and Hajdukiewicz, "participated... in all the more important events in the complex diplomatic game that ambitious

politician and statesman played in defense of the particular interests of Prussia and Warmia, between hostility to the

[Teutonic] Order and loyalty to the Polish Crown."[43]

In 1504–12 Copernicus made numerous journeys as part of his uncle's retinue—in 1504, to

Toruń and Gdańsk, to a session of the Royal Prussian Council in the presence of Poland's

King Alexander Jagiellon; to sessions of the Prussian diet at Malbork (1506), Elbląg (1507)

and Sztum(Stuhm) (1512); and he may have attended a Poznań(Posen) session (1510)

and the coronation of Poland's King Sigismund I the Old in Kraków (1507). Watzenrode's

itinerary suggests that in spring 1509 Copernicus may have attended the Kraków sejm.[43]

It was probably on the latter occasion, in Kraków, that Copernicus submitted for printing

at Jan Haller's press his translation, from Greek to Latin, of a collection, by the 7th-

century Byzantine historian Theophylact Simocatta, of 85 brief poems called Epistles, or

letters, supposed to have passed between various characters in a Greek story. They are of

three kinds—"moral," offering advice on how people should live; "pastoral", giving little

pictures of shepherd life; and "amorous", comprising love poems. They are arranged to

follow one another in a regular rotation of subjects. Copernicus had translated the Greek

verses into Latin prose, and he now published his version as Theophilacti scolastici

Simocati epistolae morales, rurales et amatoriae interpretatione latina, which he dedicated

to his uncle in gratitude for all the benefits he had received from him. With this translation,

Copernicus declared himself on the side of the humanists in the struggle over the question

whether Greek literature should be revived.[22] Copernicus' first poetic work was a

Greek epigram, composed probably during a visit to Kraków, for Johannes

9/23/13 Nicolaus Copernicus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus 7/17

Copernicus' tow er

atFrombork, w here he lived and

w orked; rebuilt recently

Frombork Cathedral mount and

fortif ications. In foreground: statue of

Copernicus

Dantiscus' epithalamium forBarbara Zapolya's 1512 wedding to King Zygmunt I the Old.[47]

Some time before 1514, Copernicus wrote an initial outline of his heliocentric theory known only from later transcripts, by the

title (perhaps given to it by a copyist), Nicolai Copernici de hypothesibus motuum coelestium a se constitutis commentariolus

—commonly referred to as the Commentariolus. It was a succinct theoretical description of the world's heliocentric

mechanism, without mathematical apparatus, and differed in some important details of geometric construction from De

revolutionibus; but it was already based on the same assumptions regarding Earth's triple motions. The Commentariolus,

which Copernicus consciously saw as merely a first sketch for his planned book, was not intended for printed distribution. He

made only a very few manuscript copies available to his closest acquaintances, including, it seems, several Kraków

astronomers with whom he collaborated in 1515–30 in observing eclipses. Tycho Brahe would include a fragment from

theCommentariolus in his own treatise, Astronomiae instauratae progymnasmata, published inPrague in 1602, based on a

manuscript that he had received from the Bohemian physician and astronomer Tadeáš Hájek, a friend of Rheticus.

The Commentariolus would appear complete in print for the first time only in 1878.[47]

In 1510 or 1512 Copernicus moved to Frombork,

a town to the northwest at the Vistula

Lagoon on theBaltic Seacoast. There, in April

1512, he participated in the election ofFabian of

Lossainen as Prince-Bishop of Warmia. It was

only in early June 1512 that the chapter gave

Copernicus an "external curia"—a house

outside the defensive walls of the cathedral

mount. In 1514 he purchased the northwestern

tower within the walls of the Frombork

stronghold. He would maintain both these

residences to the end of his life, despite the

devastation of the chapter's buildings by a raid

against Frauenburg carried out by the Teutonic

Order in January 1520, during which Copernicus' astronomical instruments were probably

destroyed. Copernicus conducted astronomical observations in 1513–16 presumably from

his external curia; and in 1522–43, from an unidentified "small tower" (turricula), using

primitive instruments modeled on ancient ones—the quadrant, triquetrum, armillary sphere.

At Frombork Copernicus conducted over half of his more than 60 registered astronomical observations.[47]

Having settled permanently at Frombork, where he would reside to the end of his life, with interruptions in 1516–19 and 1520–

21, Copernicus found himself at the Warmia chapter's economic and administrative center, which was also one of Warmia's

two chief centers of political life. In the difficult, politically complex situation of Warmia, threatened externally by the Teutonic

Order's aggressions (attacks by Teutonic bands; the Polish-Teutonic War of 1519–21; Albert's plans to annex Warmia),

internally subject to strong separatist pressures (the selection of the prince-bishops of Warmia; currency reform), he, together

with part of the chapter, represented a program of strict cooperation with the Polish Crown and demonstrated in all his public

activities (the defense of his country against the Order's plans of conquest; proposals to unify its monetary system with the

Polish Crown's; support for Poland's interests in the Warmia dominion's ecclesiastic administration) that he was consciously

a citizen of the Polish-Lithuanian Republic. Soon after the death of uncle Bishop Watzenrode, he participated in the signing of

the Second Treaty of Piotrków Trybunalski (7 December 1512), governing the appointment of the Bishop of Warmia, declaring,

despite opposition from part of the chapter, for loyal cooperation with the Polish Crown.[47]

That same year (before 8 November 1512) Copernicus assumed responsibility, as magister pistoriae, for administering the

chapter's economic enterprises (he would hold this office again in 1530), having already since 1511 fulfilled the duties of

chancellor and visitor of the chapter's estates.[47]

His administrative and economic dutes did not distract Copernicus, in 1512–15, from intensive observational activity. The

results of his observations of Mars and Saturn in this period, and especially a series of four observations of the Sun made in

1515, led to discovery of the variability of Earth's eccentricity and of the movement of the solar apogee in relation to the fixed

stars, which in 1515–19 prompted his first revisions of certain assumptions of his system. Some of the observations that he

9/23/13 Nicolaus Copernicus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus 8/17

Olsztyn Castle

Thorvaldsen's Copernicus

Monument in Warsaw

Copernicus

made in this period may have had a connection with a proposed reform of the Julian calendar made in the first half of 1513 at

the request of the Bishop of Fossombrone, Paul of Middelburg. Their contacts in this matter in the period of the Fifth Lateran

Council were later memorialized in a complimentary mention in Copernicus' dedicatory epistle in De revolutionibus orbium

coelestium and in a treatise by Paul of Middelburg, Secundum compendium correctionis Calendarii (1516), which mentions

Copernicus among the learned men who had sent the Council proposals for the calendar's emendation.[48]

During 1516–21, Copernicus resided at Olsztyn (Allenstein) Castle as economic

administrator of Warmia, including Olsztyn (Allenstein) andPieniężno (Mehlsack).

While there, he wrote a manuscript, Locationes mansorum desertorum(Locations

of Deserted Fiefs), with a view to populating those fiefs with industrious farmers

and so bolstering the economy of Warmia. WhenOlsztyn was besieged by

the Teutonic Knightsduring the Polish–Teutonic War (1519–21), Copernicus

directed the defense of Olsztyn and Warmia by Royal Polish forces. He also

represented the Polish side in the ensuing peace negotiations.[49]

Copernicus for years advised the Royal Prussian sejmik on monetary reform,

particularly in the 1520s when that was a major question in regional Prussian

politics.[50] In 1526 he wrote a study on the value of money, Monetae cudendae ratio. In it he formulated an early iteration of

the theory, now called Gresham's law, that "bad" (debased) coinage drives "good" (un-debased) coinage out of circulation—

several decades before Thomas Gresham. He also, in 1517, set down a quantity theory of money, a principal concept in

economics to the present day. Copernicus' recommendations on monetary reform were widely read by leaders of both

Prussia and Poland in their attempts to stabilize currency.[51]

In 1533, Johann Widmanstetter, secretary to Pope Clement VII, explained Copernicus'

heliocentric system to the Pope and two cardinals. The Pope was so pleased that he gave

Widmanstetter a valuable gift.[52] In 1535Bernard Wapowski wrote a letter to a gentleman

inVienna, urging him to publish an enclosed almanac, which he claimed had been written

by Copernicus. This is the only mention of a Copernicus almanac in the historical records.

The "almanac" was likely Copernicus' tables of planetary positions. Wapowski's letter

mentions Copernicus' theory about the motions of the earth. Nothing came of Wapowski's

request, because he died a couple of weeks later.[52]

Following the death of Prince-Bishop of Warmia Mauritius Ferber (1 July 1537), Copernicus

participated in the election of his successor, Johannes Dantiscus (20 September 1537).

Copernicus was one of four candidates for the post, written in at the initiative of Tiedemann

Giese; but his candidacy was actually pro forma, since Dantiscus had earlier been

named coadjutor bishop to Ferber.[53] At first Copernicus maintained friendly relations with

the new Prince-Bishop, assisting him medically in spring 1538 and accompanying him that

summer on an inspection tour of Chapter holdings. But that autumn, their friendship was

strained by suspicions over Copernicus' housekeeper, Anna Schilling, whom Dantiscus

removed from Frombork in 1539.[53]

In his younger days, Copernicus the physician had treated his uncle, brother and other

chapter members. In later years he was called upon to attend the elderly bishops who in

turn occupied the see of Warmia—Mauritius Ferber and Johannes Dantiscus — and, in

1539, his old friendTiedemann Giese, Bishop of Chełmno (Kulm). In treating such important

patients, he sometimes sought consultations from other physicians, including the

physician to Duke Albert and, by letter, the Polish Royal Physician.[54]

In the spring of 1541, Duke Albert summoned Copernicus to Königsberg to attend the

Duke's counselor, George von Kunheim, who had fallen seriously ill, and for whom the

Prussian doctors seemed unable to do anything. Copernicus went willingly; he had met von

Kunheim during negotiations over reform of the coinage. And Copernicus had come to feel

that Albert himself was not such a bad person; the two had many intellectual interests in

common. The Chapter readily gave Copernicus permission to go, as it wished to remain on

9/23/13 Nicolaus Copernicus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus 9/17

w ith medicinalplant

"Nicolaus

CopernicusTornaeus Borussus Mathemat.

1597

Mid-16th-century portrait.

Photograph of a portrait of

Copernicus by an unknow n

painter. The original w as looted—

possibly destroyed—by the

Germans in World War II.

good terms with the Duke, despite his Lutheran faith. In about a month the patient

recovered, and Copernicus returned to Frombork. For a time, he continued to receive

reports on von Kunheim's condition, and to send him medical advice by

letter.[55]Throughout this period of his life, Copernicus continued making astronomical

observations and calculations, but only as his other responsibilities permitted and never in

a professional capacity.[citation needed]

Some of Copernicus' close friends turned Protestant, but Copernicus never showed a

tendency in that direction. The first attacks on him came from Protestants. Wilhelm

Gnapheus, a Dutch refugee settled inElbląg, wrote a comedy in Latin, Morosophus (The

Foolish Sage), and staged it at the Latin school that he had established there. In the play,

Copernicus was caricatured as a haughty, cold, aloof man who dabbled in astrology,

considered himself inspired by God, and was rumored to have written a large work that was

moldering in a chest.[39]

Elsewhere Protestants were the first to react to news of Copernicus'

theory. Melanchthonwrote:

Some people believe that it is excellent and correct to work out a thing as absurd as

did that Sarmatian [i.e., Polish] astronomer who moves the earth and stops the sun.

Indeed, wise rulers should have curbed such light-mindedness.[39]

Nevertheless, in 1551, eight years after Copernicus' death, astronomer Erasmus Reinholdpublished, under the sponsorship of

Copernicus' former military adversary, the Protestant Duke Albert, the Prussian Tables, a set of astronomical tables based on

Copernicus' work. Astronomers and astrologers quickly adopted it in place of its predecessors.[56]

Heliocentrism

Some time before 1514 Copernicus made available to friends his "Commentariolus" ("Little

Commentary"), a forty-page manuscript describing his ideas about the heliocentric

hypothesis.[d] It contained seven basic assumptions (detailed below).[57] Thereafter he

continued gathering data for a more detailed work.

About 1532 Copernicus had basically completed his work on the manuscript of De

revolutionibus orbium coelestium; but despite urging by his closest friends, he resisted

openly publishing his views, not wishing—as he confessed—to risk the scorn "to which he

would expose himself on account of the novelty and incomprehensibility of his theses."[53]

In 1533, Johann Albrecht Widmannstetter delivered a series of lectures in Rome outlining

Copernicus' theory.Pope Clement VII and several Catholic cardinals heard the lectures and

were interested in the theory. On 1 November 1536, Cardinal Nikolaus von

Schönberg, Archbishop of Capua, wrote to Copernicus from Rome:

Some years ago word reached me concerning your proficiency, of which everybody

constantly spoke. At that time I began to have a very high regard for you... For I had

learned that you had not merely mastered the discoveries of the ancient

astronomers uncommonly well but had also formulated a new cosmology. In it you

maintain that the earth moves; that the sun occupies the lowest, and thus the

central, place in the universe... Therefore with the utmost earnestness I entreat you,

most learned sir, unless I inconvenience you, to communicate this discovery of

yours to scholars, and at the earliest possible moment to send me your writings on the sphere of the universe

together with the tables and whatever else you have that is relevant to this subject ...[58]

By then Copernicus' work was nearing its definitive form, and rumors about his theory had reached educated people all over

Europe. Despite urgings from many quarters, Copernicus delayed publication of his book, perhaps from fear of criticism—a

fear delicately expressed in the subsequent dedication of his masterpiece to Pope Paul III. Scholars disagree on whether

9/23/13 Nicolaus Copernicus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus 10/17

De revolutionibus, 1543.Click

on image to read book.

1735 epitaph, Frombork

Cathedral. A 1580 epitaph had

been destroyed.

Casket w ith Copernicus'

remains, St. James' Cathedral

Basilica, Allenstein, March 2010

Frombork Cathedral

Copernicus' concern was limited to possible astronomical and philosophical objections, or whether he was also concerned

about religious objections.[e]

The book

Copernicus was still working on De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (even if not certain

that he wanted to publish it) when in 1539 Georg Joachim Rheticus,

a Wittenbergmathematician, arrived in Frombork. Philipp Melanchthon, a close theological

ally of Martin Luther, had arranged for Rheticus to visit several astronomers and study with

them. Rheticus became Copernicus' pupil, staying with him for two years and writing a

book, Narratio prima (First Account), outlining the essence of Copernicus' theory. In 1542

Rheticus published a treatise on trigonometry by Copernicus (later included in the second

book of De revolutionibus).[citation needed]

Under strong pressure from Rheticus, and having seen the favorable first general reception

of his work, Copernicus finally agreed to give De revolutionibus to his close

friend,Tiedemann Giese, bishop of Chełmno (Kulm), to be delivered to Rheticus for printing

by the German printer Johannes Petreius at Nuremberg(Nürnberg), Germany. While

Rheticus initially supervised the printing, he had to leave Nuremberg before it was

completed, and he handed over the task of supervising the rest of the printing to a Lutheran

theologian, Andreas Osiander.[59]

Osiander added an unauthorised and unsigned preface, defending the work against those

who might be offended by the novel hypotheses. He explained that astronomers may find different causes for observed

motions, and choose whatever is easier to grasp. As long as a hypothesis allows reliable computation, it does not have to

match what a philosopher might seek as the truth.[citation needed]

Death

Toward the close of 1542, Copernicus was seized

with apoplexyand paralysis, and he died at age 70 on 24

May 1543. Legend has it that he was presented with an

advance copy of his De revolutionibus orbium

coelestium on the very day that he died, allowing him to

take farewell of his life's work. He is reputed to have

awoken from a stroke-induced coma, looked at his book,

and then died peacefully.[citation needed]

Copernicus was reportedly buried in Frombork

Cathedral, where archaeologists for over two centuries

searched in vain for his remains. Efforts to

locate the remains in 1802, 1909, 1939 and

2004 had come to nought. In August 2005,

however, a team led by Jerzy Gąssowski, head

of an archaeology and anthropologyinstitute

in Pułtusk, after scanning beneath the cathedral

floor, discovered what they believed to be

Copernicus' remains.[60]

The find came after a year of searching, and the

discovery was announced only after further

research, on 3 November 2008. Gąssowski said he was "almost 100 percent sure

it is Copernicus".[61] Forensic expert Capt. Dariusz Zajdel of the Polish Police

Central Forensic Laboratory used the skull to reconstruct a face that closely resembled the features—including a broken

nose and a scar above the left eye—on a Copernicus self-portrait.[61] The expert also determined that the skull belonged to a

9/23/13 Nicolaus Copernicus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus 11/17

Copernicus' 2010 grave,

Frombork Cathedral

Tusi couple

man who had died around age 70—Copernicus' age at the time of his death.[60]

The grave was in poor condition, and not all the remains of the skeleton were found;

missing, among other things, was the lower jaw.[62] The DNA from the bones found in the

grave matched hair samples taken from a book owned by Copernicus which was kept at

the library of the University of Uppsala in Sweden.[63][64]

On 22 May 2010 Copernicus was given a second funeral in a Mass led by Józef

Kowalczyk, the former papal nuncio to Poland and newly named Primate of Poland.

Copernicus' remains were reburied in the same spot in Frombork Cathedral where part of

his skull and other bones had been found. A black granite tombstone now identifies him as

the founder of theheliocentric theory and also a church canon. The tombstone bears a

representation of Copernicus' model of the solar system—a golden sun encircled by six of

the planets.[65]

Copernican system

Main article: Copernican heliocentrism

Predecessors

Philolaus (c. 480–385 BCE) described an astronomical system in which a Central Fire(different from the Sun) occupied the

centre of the universe, and a counter-Earth, the Earth, Moon, the Sun itself, planets, and stars all revolved around it, in that

order outward from the centre.[66] Heraclides Ponticus (387–312 BCE) proposed that the Earth rotates on its

axis.[67] Aristarchus of Samos (310 BCE – c. 230 BCE) identified the "central fire" with the Sun, around which he had the

Earth orbiting.[68] Some technical details of Copernicus's systemTemplate:Efjn closely resembled those developed earlier by

the Islamic astronomersNaṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī and Ibn al-Shāṭir, both of whom retained a geocentric model. Aryabhata (476–

550), in his magnum opus Aryabhatiya (499), propounded a planetary model in which the Earth was taken to be spinning on

its axis and the periods of the planets were given with respect to the Sun. He accurately calculated many astronomical

constants, such as the periods of the planets, times of the solar and lunar eclipses, and the instantaneous motion of the

Moon.[citation needed]

At the Maragha observatory, Najm al-Dīn al-Qazwīnī al-Kātibī (d. 1277), in his Hikmat al-

'Ain, wrote an argument for a heliocentric model, but later abandoned the model. Qutb al-

Din Shirazi (b. 1236) also discussed the possibility of heliocentrism, but rejected it.[41]

Ibn al-Shatir (b. 1304) developed a geocentric system that employed mathematical

techniques, such as the Tusi couple and Urdi lemma, that were almost identical to those

Nicolaus Copernicus later employed in his heliocentric system, implying that its

mathematical model was influenced by the Maragha school.[69]

Nilakantha Somayaji (1444–1544), in his Aryabhatiyabhasya, a commentary on

Aryabhata's Aryabhatiya, developed a computational system for a partially heliocentric

planetary model, in which the planets orbit the Sun, which in turn orbits the Earth, similar

to the Tychonic system later proposed by Tycho Brahe in the late 16th century. In the

Tantrasangraha (1500), he further revised his planetary system, which was

mathematically more accurate at predicting the heliocentric orbits of the interior planets than both the Tychonic and

Copernican models.[citation needed]

The prevailing theory in Europe during Copernicus' lifetime was the one that Ptolemypublished in his Almagest circa 150 CE;

the Earth was the stationary center of the universe. Stars were embedded in a large outer sphere which rotated rapidly,

approximately daily, while each of the planets, the Sun, and the Moon were embedded in their own, smaller spheres.

Ptolemy's system employed devices, including epicycles, deferents and equants, to account for observations that the paths

of these bodies differed from simple, circular orbits centered on the Earth.[citation needed]

Copernicus

9/23/13 Nicolaus Copernicus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus 12/17

Copernicus' vision of the universe in De revolutionibus

orbium coelestium

Copernicus' major theory was published in De revolutionibus orbium

coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), in the

year of his death, 1543, though he had formulated the theory several

decades earlier.[citation needed]

Copernicus' "Commentariolus" summarized his heliocentric theory.

It listed the "assumptions" upon which the theory was based as

follows:[citation needed]

"1. There is no one center of all the celestial circles or

spheres.

2. The center of the earth is not the center of the universe,

but only of gravity and of the lunar sphere.

3. All the spheres revolve about the sun as their mid-point,

and therefore the sun is the center of the universe.

4. The ratio of the earth's distance from the sun to the height

of the firmament(outermost celestial sphere containing the

stars) is so much smaller than the ratio of the earth's radius

to its distance from the sun that the distance from the earth

to the sun is imperceptible in comparison with the height of the firmament.

5. Whatever motion appears in the firmament arises not from any motion of the firmament, but from the earth's

motion. The earth together with its circumjacent elements performs a complete rotation on its fixed poles in a

daily motion, while the firmament and highest heaven abide unchanged.

6. What appear to us as motions of the sun arise not from its motion but from the motion of the earth and our

sphere, with which we revolve about the sun like any other planet. The earth has, then, more than one motion.

7. The apparent retrograde and direct motion of the planets arises not from their motion but from the earth's. The

motion of the earth alone, therefore, suffices to explain so many apparent inequalities in the heavens."[70]

De revolutionibus itself was divided into six parts, called "books":[citation needed]

1. General vision of the heliocentric theory, and a summarized exposition of his idea of the World

2. Mainly theoretical, presents the principles of spherical astronomy and a list of stars (as a basis for the arguments

developed in the subsequent books)

3. Mainly dedicated to the apparent motions of the Sun and to related phenomena

4. Description of the Moon and its orbital motions

5. Exposition of the motions in longitude of the non-terrestrial planets

6. Exposition of the motions in latitude of the non-terrestrial planets

Successors

See also: Copernican Revolution

Georg Joachim Rheticus could have been Copernicus' successor, but did not rise to the occasion.[52] Erasmus

Reinhold could have been his successor, but died prematurely.[52]The first of the great successors was Tycho

Brahe[52] (though he did not think the earth orbited the sun), followed by Johannes Kepler,[52] who had worked as Tycho's

assistant in Prague.[citation needed]

Despite the near universal acceptance today of the basic heliocentric idea (though not the epicycles or the circular orbits),

Copernicus' theory was originally slow to catch on. Scholars hold that sixty years after the publication of The

Revolutions there were only around 15 astronomers espousing Copernicanism in all of Europe: "Thomas Digges and Thomas

Harriotin England; Giordano Bruno and Galileo Galilei in Italy; Diego Zuniga in Spain; Simon Stevinin the Low Countries; and

in Germany, the largest group – Georg Joachim Rheticus, Michael Maestlin, Christoph Rothmann (who may have later

recanted),[71] and Johannes Kepler."[71]Additional possibilities are Englishman William Gilbert, along with Achilles Gasser,

Georg Vogelin, Valentin Otto, and Tiedemann Giese.[71]

Arthur Koestler, in his popular book The Sleepwalkers, asserted that Copernicus' book had not been widely read on its first

9/23/13 Nicolaus Copernicus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus 13/17

Copernicus, astronomer

publication.[72] This claim was trenchantly criticised byEdward Rosen,[f ] and has been decisively disproved by Owen

Gingerich, who examined every surviving copy of the first two editions and found copious marginal notes by their owners

throughout many of them. Gingerich published his conclusions in 2004 in The Book Nobody Read.[73]

The intellectual climate of the time "remained dominated by Aristotelian philosophy and the corresponding Ptolemaic

astronomy. At that time there was no reason to accept the Copernican theory, except for its mathematical simplicity [by

avoiding using the equant in determining planetary positions]."[74] Tycho Brahe's system ("that the earth is stationary, the sun

revolves about the earth, and the other planets revolve about the sun")[74] also directly competed with Copernicus'. It was only

a half century later with the work of Kepler and Galileo that any substantial evidence defending Copernicanism appeared,

starting "from the time when Galileo formulated the principle of inertia...[which] helped to explain why everything would not fall

off the earth if it were in motion."[74] It was not until "after Isaac Newton formulated the universal law of gravitation and the laws

of mechanics [in his 1687Principia], which unified terrestrial and celestial mechanics, was the heliocentric view generally

accepted."[74]

Controversy

See also: Catholic Church and science

Only mild controversy (and no fierce sermons) was the immediate result of the publication

of Copernicus' book. At the Council of Trent neither Copernicus' theory nor calendar reform

(which would later use tables deduced from Copernicus' calculations) were

discussed.[citation needed]

The first notable to move against Copernicanism was the Magister of the Holy Palace (i.e.,

the Catholic Church's chief censor), Dominican Bartolomeo Spina, who "expressed a

desire to stamp out the Copernican doctrine".[75][76] But with Spina's death in 1546, his

cause fell to his friend, the well known theologian-astronomer, the Dominican Giovanni

Maria Tolosani of the Convent of St. Mark in Florence. Tolosani had written a treatise on

reforming the calendar (in which astronomy would play a large role), and had attended

the Fifth Lateran Council to discuss the matter. He had obtained a copy of De

Revolutionibus in 1544. His denouncement of Copernicanism appeared in an appendix to

his work entitled On the Truth of Sacred Scripture.[77][78]

Emulating the rationalistic style of Thomas Aquinas, Tolosani sought to refute

Copernicanism on philosophical arguments. While still invoking Christian Scripture and

Tradition, Tolosani strove to show Copernicanism was absurd because it was unproven and unfounded on three main points.

First Copernicus had assumed the motion of the Earth but offered no physical theory whereby one would deduce this motion.

(No one realized that the investigation into Copernicanism would result in a rethinking of the entire field of physics.) Second

Tolosani charged that Copernicus' thought process was backwards. He held that Copernicus had come up with his idea and

then sought phenomena that would support it, rather than observing phenomena and deducing from that the idea of what

caused it. In this Tolosani was linking Copernicus' mathematical equations with the practices of

the Pythagoreans (whomAristotle had made arguments against, which were later picked up by Thomas Aquinas). It was

argued that mathematical numbers were a mere product of the intellect without any physical reality, and as such "numbers

could not provide physical causes in the investigation of nature."[75] (This was basically a denial of the possibility

of mathematical physics.)[citation needed]

Some astronomical hypotheses at the time (such as epicycles and eccentrics) were seen as mere mathematical devices to

adjust calculations of where the heavenly bodies would appear, rather than an explanation of the cause of those motions. (As

Copernicus still maintained the idea of perfectly spherical orbits he relied on epicycles). This "saving the phenomena" was

seen as proof that astronomy and mathematics could not be taken as a serious means to determine physical causes.

Holding this view, Tolosani invoked it in his final critique of Copernicus, saying his biggest error was that he started with

"inferior" fields of science to make pronouncements about "superior" fields. Copernicus had used Mathematics and

Astronomy to postulate about Physics and Cosmology, rather than beginning with the accepted principles of Physics and

Cosmology to determine things about Astronomy and Math. In this way Copernicus seemed to be undermining the whole

system of the philosophy of science at the time. Tolosani held that Copernicus had just fallen into philosophical error because

9/23/13 Nicolaus Copernicus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus 14/17

Ptolemy and Copernicus, ca.

1686, at King Jan Sobieski's

library, Wilanów Palace: an early

Copernicus depiction

he hadn't been versed in physics and logic - anyone without such knowledge would make a poor astronomer and be unable to

distinguish truth from falsehood. Because it had not meet the criteria for scientific truth set out by Thomas Aquinas, Tolosani

held that Copernicanism could only be viewed as a wild unproven theory.[citation needed]

Tolosani recognized that the Ad Lectorem preface to Copernicus' book wasn't actually by

him. Its thesis that astronomy as a whole would never be able to make truth claims was

rejected by Tolosani, (though he still held that Copernicus' attempt to describe physical

reality had been faulty), he found it ridiculous that Ad Lectorem had been included in the

book (unaware that Copernicus hadn't authorized its inclusion). Tolosani wrote "By means

of these words [of the Ad Lectorem], the foolishness of this book's author is rebuked. For

by a foolish effort he [Copernicus] tried to revive the weak Pythagorean opinion [that the

element of fire was at the center of the Universe], long ago deservedly destroyed, since it is

expressly contrary to human reason and also opposes holy writ. From this situation, there

could easily arise disagreements between Catholic expositors of holy scripture and those

who might wish to adhere obstinately to this false opinion. We have written this little work

for the purpose of avoiding this scandal."[78] Tolosani declared "Nicolaus Copernicus

neither read nor understood the arguments of Aristotle the philosopher and Ptolemy the

astronomer."[78] He wrote that Copernicus "is very deficient in the sciences of physics and

logic. Moreover, it appears that he is unskilled with regard to [the interpretation of] holy

scripture, since he contradicts several of its principles, not without danger of infidelity to himself and the readers of his book.

...his arguments have no force and can very easily be taken apart. For it is stupid to contradict an opinion accepted by

everyone over a very long time for the strongest reasons, unless the impugner uses more powerful and insoluble

demonstrations and completely dissolves the opposed reasons. But he does not do this in the least."[78] He declared that he

had written against Copernicus "for the purpose of preserving the truth to the common advantage of the Holy

Church."[78] Despite the efforts Tolosani put into his work it remained unpublished and it "was likely shelved in the library of

the Dominican order at San Marco in Florence, awaiting its use by some new prosecutor" (it is believed that

Dominican Tommaso Caccini read it before delivering a sermon against Galileo in December 1613).[78]

It has been much debated why it was not until six decades after the publication of De revolutionibus that the Catholic Church

took any official action against it, even the efforts of Tolosani had gone unheeded. Proposed reasons have included the

personality of Galileo Galilei and the availability of evidence such as telescope observations.[citation needed]

How entwined the pre-Copernican theory was in theological circles can be seen in a sample of the works of John Calvin. In

his Commentary on Genesis he said that "We indeed are not ignorant that the circuit of the heavens is finite, and that the

earth, like a little globe, is placed in the centre."[79] Commenting on Job 26:7 Calvin wrote "It is true that Job specifically says

'the north,' and yet he is speaking about the whole heaven. And that is because the sky turns around upon the pole that is

there. For, just as in the wheels of a chariot there is an axle that runs through the middle of them, and the wheels turn around

the axle by reason of the holes that are in the middle of them, even so is it in the skies. This is manifestly seen; that is to

say, those who are well acquainted with the course of the firmament see that the sky so turns."[79] Calvin's commentaries on

the Psalms also show a reliance on the pre-Copernican theory; for Psalms 93:1 "The heavens revolve daily, and, immense as

is their fabric and inconceivable the rapidity of their revolutions, we experience no concussion – no disturbance in the

harmony of their motion. The sun, though varying its course every diurnal revolution, returns annually to the same point. The

planets, in all their wanderings, maintain their respective positions. How could the earth hang suspended in the air were it not

upheld by God's hand? By what means could it maintain itself unmoved, while the heavens above are in constant rapid

motion, did not its Divine Maker fix and establish it."[79] Commenting on Psalms 19:4 Calvin says "the firmament, by its own

revolution draws with it all the fixed stars".[79] There is no evidence that Calvin was aware of Copernicus, and claims that after

quoting Psalm 93:1 he went on to say "Who will venture to place the authority of Copernicus above the Holy Spirit", have

been discredited and shown to originate with Frederic William Farrar's Bampton Lecture in 1885.[79] Unlike Calvin many

theologians did become aware of Copernicus' theory which became increasingly controversial.[citation needed]

The sharpest point of conflict between Copernicus' theory and the Bible concerned the story of the Battle of Gibeon in the

Book of Joshua where the Hebrew forces were winning but whose opponents were likely to escape once night fell. This is

averted by Joshua's prayers causing the sun and the moon to stand still. Martin Luther once made a remark about

Copernicus, although without mentioning his name. According to Anthony Lauterbach, while eating with Martin Luther the

9/23/13 Nicolaus Copernicus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus 15/17

topic of Copernicus arose during dinner on 4 June 1539 (in the same year as professor George Joachim Rheticus of the local

University had been granted leave to visit him). Luther is said to have remarked "So it goes now. Whoever wants to be clever

must agree with nothing others esteem. He must do something of his own. This is what that fellow does who wishes to turn

the whole of astronomy upside down. Even in these things that are thrown into disorder I believe the Holy Scriptures, for

Joshua commanded the sun to stand still and not the earth."[74] These remarks were made four years before the publication

of On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres and a year before Rheticus'Narratio Prima. In John Aurifaber's account of the

conversation Luther calls Copernicus "that fool" rather than "that fellow", this version is viewed by historians as less reliably

sourced.[74]

Luther's collaborator Philipp Melanchthon also took issue with Copernicanism. After receiving the first pages of Narratio

Prima from Rheticus himself, Melanchthon wrote to Mithobius (physician and mathematician Burkard Mithob of Feldkirch) on

16 October 1541 condemning the theory and calling for it to be repressed by governmental force, writing "certain people

believe it is a marvelous achievement to extol so crazy a thing, like that Polish astronomer who makes the earth move and

the sun stand still. Really, wise governments ought to repress impudence of mind."[80] It had appeared to Rheticus that

Melanchton would understand the theory and would be open to it. This was because Melanchton had taught Ptolemaic

astronomy and had even recommended his friend Rheticus to an appointment to the Deanship of the Faculty of Arts &

Sciences at the University of Wittenberg after he had returned from studying with Copernicus.[citation needed]

Rheticus' hopes were dashed when six years after the publication of De RevolutionibusMelanchthon published his Initia

Doctrinae Physicae presenting three grounds to reject Copernicanism, these were "the evidence of the senses, the thousand-

year consensus of men of science, and the authority of the Bible".[81] Blasting the new theory Melanchthon wrote "Out of love

for novelty or in order to make a show of their cleverness, some people have argued that the earth moves. They maintain that

neither the eighth sphere nor the sun moves, whereas they attribute motion to the other celestial spheres, and also place the

earth among the heavenly bodies. Nor were these jokes invented recently. There is still extant Archimedes' book on The

sand-reckoner; in which he reports that Aristarchus of Samos propounded the paradox that the sun stands still and the earth

revolves around the sun. Even though subtle experts institute many investigations for the sake of exercising their ingenuity,

nevertheless public proclamation of absurd opinions is indecent and sets a harmful example."[80] Melanchthon went on to cite

Bible passages and then declare "Encouraged by this divine evidence, let us cherish the truth and let us not permit ourselves

to be alienated from it by the tricks of those who deem it an intellectual honor to introduce confusion into the arts."[80] In the

first edition of Initia Doctrinae Physicae, Melanchthon even questioned Copernicus' character claiming his motivation was

"either from love of novelty or from desire to appear clever", these more personal attacks were largely removed by the second

edition in 1550.[81]

Another Protestant theologian who took issue with Copernicus was John Owen who declared that "the late hypothesis, fixing

the sun as in the centre of the world' was 'built on fallible phenomena, and advanced by many arbitrary presumptions against

evident testimonies of Scripture."[82]

In Roman Catholic circles, German Jesuit Nicolaus Serarius was one of the first to write against Copernicus' theory as

heretical, citing the Joshua passage, in a work published in 1609–1610, and again in a book in 1612.[citation needed]

In his 12 April 1615 letter to a Catholic defender of Copernicus, Paolo Antonio Foscarini, Catholic Cardinal Robert

Bellarmine condemned Copernican theory, writing "...not only the Holy Fathers, but also the modern commentaries on

Genesis, the Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and Joshua, you will find all agreeing in the literal interpretation that the sun is in heaven

and turns around the earth with great speed, and that the earth is very far from heaven and sits motionless at the center of the

world...Nor can one answer that this is not a matter of faith, since if it is not a matter of faith 'as regards the topic,' it is a

matter of faith 'as regards the speaker': and so it would be heretical to say that Abraham did not have two children and Jacob

twelve, as well as to say that Christ was not born of a virgin, because both are said by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of

prophets and apostles."[83]

Perhaps the strongest opponent to Copernican theory was Francesco Ingoli, a Catholic priest. Ingoli wrote a January 1616

essay condemning Copernicanism as "philosophically untenable and theologically heretical."[83] Though "it is not certain, it is

probable that he was commissioned by the Inquisition to write an expert opinion on the controversy",[83] (after the

Congregation of the Index's decree against Copernicanism on 5 March 1616 Ingoli was officially appointed its consultant). Two

of Ingoli's theological issues with Copernicus' theory were "common Catholic beliefs not directly traceable to Scripture: the

doctrine that hell is located at the center of Earth and is most distant from heaven; and the explicit assertion that Earth is

9/23/13 Nicolaus Copernicus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus 16/17

Bust by Schadow ,

1807,Walhalla memorial

motionless in a hymn sung on Tuesdays as part of the Liturgy of the Hours of the Divine Office prayers regularly recited by

priests."[83] Ingoli also cited Genesis 1:14 where YHWH places "lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from

the night."[83]Like previous commentators Ingoli pointed to the passages about the Battle of Gibeon and dismissed arguments

that they should be taken metaphorically, saying "Replies which assert that Scripture speaks according to our mode of

understanding are not satisfactory: both because in explaining the Sacred Writings the rule is always to preserve the literal

sense, when it is possible, as it is in this case; and also because all the [Church] Fathers unanimously take this passage to

mean that the sun which was truly moving stopped at Joshua's request. An interpretation which is contrary to the unanimous

consent of the Fathers is condemned by the Council of Trent, Session IV, in the decree on the edition and use of the Sacred

Books. Furthermore, although the Council speaks about matters of faith and morals, nevertheless it cannot be denied that the

Holy Fathers would be displeased with an interpretation of Sacred Scriptures which is contrary to their common

agreement."[83]

In March 1616, in connection with the Galileo affair, the Roman Catholic Church'sCongregation of the Index issued a decree

suspending De revolutionibus until it could be "corrected", on the grounds that the supposedly Pythagorean doctrine that the

Earth moves and the Sun does not was "false and altogether opposed to Holy Scripture".[84] The same decree also prohibited

any work that defended the mobility of the Earth or the immobility of the Sun, or that attempted to reconcile these assertions

with scripture.[citation needed]

On the orders of Pope Paul V, Cardinal Robert Bellarmine gave Galileo prior notice that the decree was about to be issued,

and warned him that he could not "hold or defend" the Copernican doctrine.[g] The corrections to De revolutionibus, which

omitted or altered nine sentences, were issued four years later, in 1620.[85]

In 1633 Galileo Galilei was convicted of grave suspicion of heresy for "following the position of Copernicus, which is contrary

to the true sense and authority of Holy Scripture",[86] and was placed under house arrest for the rest of his life.[citation needed]

At the instance of Roger Boscovich, the Catholic Church's 1758 Index of Prohibited Booksomitted the general prohibition of

works defending heliocentrism,[87] but retained the specific prohibitions of the original uncensored versions of De

revolutionibus and Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. Those prohibitions were finally dropped from

the 1835 Index.[88]

Nationality

There has been discussion of Copernicus' nationality and of whether, in fact, it is

meaningful to ascribe to him a nationality in the modern sense.

Historian Michael Burleigh describes the nationality debate as a "totally insignificant battle"

between German and Polish scholars during the interwar

period.[89] Polishastronomer Konrad Rudnicki calls the discussion a "fierce scholarly

quarrel in ... times of nationalism" and describes Copernicus as an inhabitant of a German-

speaking territory that belonged to Poland, himself being of mixed Polish-German

extraction.[90]

Poet Czesław Miłosz describes the debate as an "absurd" projection of a modern

understanding of nationality ontoRenaissance people, who identified with their home

territories rather than with a nation.[91]

Similarly, historian Norman Davies writes that Copernicus, as was common in his era, was

"largely indifferent" to nationality, being a local patriot who considered himself

"Prussian".[92]

Miłosz and Davies both write that Copernicus had a German-language cultural background,

while his working language was Latin in accord with the usage of the time.[91][92]Additionally, according to Davies, "there is

ample evidence that he knew the Polish language".[92] Davies concludes: "Taking everything into consideration, there is good

reason to regard him both as a German and as a Pole: and yet, in the sense that modern nationalists understand it, he was

neither."[92]

Sheila Rabin, writing in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, describes Copernicus as a "child of a German family [who]

9/23/13 Nicolaus Copernicus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus 17/17

1973 Federal Republic of Germany 5-

mark silver coin commemorating 500th

anniversary of Copernicus' birth

was a subject of the Polish crown",[3] while Martin Weissenbacher writes that Copernicus' father was a Germanized

Pole.[93] Encyclopædia Britannica,[94] Encyclopedia Americana,[95] The Columbia Encyclopedia[96] The Oxford World

Encyclopedia,[97] and World Book Encyclopedia[98] refer to Copernicus as a "Polish astronomer".

Commemoration

Copernicium

Main article: Copernicium

On 14 July 2009, the discoverers, from theGesellschaft für

Schwerionenforschung inDarmstadt, Germany, of chemical element 112

(temporarily named ununbium) proposed to theInternational Union of Pure and

Applied Chemistrythat its permanent name be "copernicium" (symbol Cn). "After

we had named elements after our city and our state, we wanted to make a

statement with a name that was known to everyone," said Hofmann. "We didn't

want to select someone who was a German. We were looking world-wide."[99] On

the 537th anniversary of his birthday the official naming was released to the public.[100]

Veneration

Copernicus is honored, together with Johannes Kepler, in the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA), with a feast

day on 23 May.[101]